Cinematic virtual reality as a new narrative form

Over the past three decades, digital information technologies have rapidly transformed our means of communication and introduced new media forms. Some of the most recent developments in this respect are the emergence of 360-degree video cameras (both at the consumer level and for industrial production), the introduction of computer applications to process 360-degree video images, and wide-scale adoption of head-mounted displays (HMD). These technologies, all working together, seem to provide us with a new form of filmmaking, new potentials for cinematic storytelling, and in fact, a new form of cinematic experience. Although 360-degrees films that are produced to be watched on HMDs have immensely evolved in the past decade, the creative projects produced in this field remains relatively experimental. Cultivating the widespread adoption of VR headsets towards developing new narrative forms and exploiting the potentials of this new medium towards storytelling remains as challenging yet promising task. This paper will examine the narrative potentials of a new media form, which is called Cinematic Virtual Reality (CVR).Publisher's Versio

Project Orpheus: a research study into 360° cinematic VR

When creating content for virtual reality, filmmakers find that they need to re-evaluate the tools they have traditionally used to tell their stories, and explore the new possibilities that this particular medium has to offer. To determine how storytelling- and filmmaking tools function in VR, the concept of presence is currently being re-evaluated for its possibilities to be used as a measurement of the relative effectiveness of these tools. The research project Project Orpheus is presented as a case study into trans-medial storytelling, exploring how the impact of a traditional television show may be reinforced by an immersive VR experience. The movie was subsequently used to conduct a small qualitative study into the use of 3D sound to guide the viewers attention in VR

Interactive Fiction in Cinematic Virtual Reality: Epistemology, Creation and Evaluation

This dissertation presents the Interactive Fiction in Cinematic Virtual Reality (IFcVR), an interactive digital narrative (IDN) that brings together the cinematic virtual reality (cVR) and the creation of virtual environments through 360\ub0 video within an interactive fiction (IF) structure. This work is structured in three components: an epistemological approach to this kind of narrative and media hybrid; the creation process of IFcVR, from development to postproduction; and user evaluation of IFcVR. In order to set the foundations for the creation of interactive VR fiction films, I dissect the IFcVR by investigating the aesthetics, narratological and interactive notions that converge and diverge in it, proposing a medium-conscious narratology for this kind of artefact. This analysis led to the production of an IFcVR functional prototype: \u201cZENA\u201d, the first interactive VR film shot in Genoa. ZENA\u2019s creation process is reported proposing some guidelines for interactive and immersive film-makers. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the IFcVR as an entertaining narrative form and a vehicle for diverse types of messages, this study also proposes a methodology to measure User Experience (UX) on IFcVR. The full evaluation protocol gathers both qualitative and quantitative data through ad hoc instruments. The proposed protocol is illustrated through its pilot application on ZENA. Findings show interactors' positive acceptance of IFcVR as an entertaining experience

Reoriented Illustration: Towards the Networked Image

In recent years there has emerged an increasing theoretical and contextual impetus from within the discipline of illustration that would seek to define the practice by authorial approaches to the production and distribution of illustrated content. The priority of this investigation is the attempt to imagine a theoretical landscape or environment in which an ‘authorial turn’ within the discipline might emerge and anchor itself to strategies outside of persisting colloquial or industrial notions of illustration practice. Specifically, this paper aims to tie such thinking to existing practices and concepts relevant to the contemporary construction, distribution and exchange of networked images